Common Sense Toward Protecting Your Future
Protect Your Future...Now!
It takes years for most of us to figure out new and better ways to make a living or live on less income. Increasingly Americans need to have two or even three career phases before they retire.
You may not ever retire. Many people cannot pay their overhead out of savings. Therefore it can be vitally important to develop work options including part time, work from home and work over the internet.
When many people retire they can be at loose ends and may experience an unexpected behavioral shift.
Work defines many people in a positive, concrete manner. But hopefully you can mix work with plenty of semi-retired activities.
Developing a successful career is largely in your hands. It’s a process built on personal intuition. People walk out of very lucrative professions every day because they don’t like what they’re doing. Have you thought about the “walk away” move?
Self Defense
Is your line of work, profession or life-style support about to fail?
Have you considered starting a new small business which you might grow over many decades. If you have years or even decades to go in your working life consider experimenting with a tiny business that no one else can see. Flying under the radar is generally smart until you have gotten a new business partially launched.
Virtually any involvement with an attorney brings high fee costs. Do you really need a lawyer? Plenty of endeavors can run nicely without legal advice in the early stages. And when you decide you want legal advice will it be a chronic revisiting of the attorney?
Who controls your money? Stockbroker, your accountant? If the electronic, telephonic networks are interrupted how much of your money can you access quickly?
Putting your faith in a bank's trust department? If you sign agreements to have a trust department direct financial resources, in most cases, they can have absolute judgement on how money is handled. The Trust Department is then in charge of those assets, not you.
Make sure some of your resources are handled by a fee paid financial advisor. You get little argument from anyone that your financial person should only be paid by the hour or project.
Do you have money in real estate outside of your own home? If you are in early to middle work years you're missing the boat to not investigate buying investment real estate. It’s never too late to consider buying a rental property.
A useful book with plans you can actually implement:
"50 Simple Steps You Can Take to Disaster Proof Your Finances", Ilyce Glink
While Robert Kiyosaki and his wife Kim have turned their act into a large scale hustle, the series of books are useful. The earlier books tend to have more meat on the bone.
"Rich Dad's Prophecy" (Rich Dad, Poor Dad Series), Robert Kiyosaki
Well researched and not deadly to read.
"Identity Theft: How to Protect Your Most Valuable Asset", Robert Hammond
Living Circumstances to Enhance Survival & Longevity
Intentional Communities: Can you find a housing situation where you have neighbors who want social and communal companionship? Residents of communities planned for sharing are often better prepared to handle difficult situations. And they can enjoy their neighbors company.
Living a Bit Too High? If you reside in a high rise structure, how will you be effected by long term electrical outages? How will firemen reach your apartment on the 45th floor? What protection does height afford you? Can the generators in your high rise be maintained by anyone other than specialists? Will you be able to walk up to your living space? Can you walk up those stairs for two months running?
The Ultimate Financial Safeguard? Perhaps the only real guarantee you can work when you want is to run your own business. However many people are not cut out for the stresses of self employment. People who find satisfaction in managing their own affairs are better candidates for being an owner.
Backstop Your Employer: Even the best employer can only do so much for the employees. Every company is stuck with the same unpredictable marketplace. Like it or not, you must strive for some degree of real self sufficiency. Corporate entities, by their nature, are not operating for the protection of the individual. So it’s up to the individual to take steps on their own for financial or healthcare protection.
Exercise: The most overlooked and underused opportunity in life. It's been estimated that only 30% of the American population exercises, even simple walking. How can you not?People who skip exercise consistently make less valid life decisions. That usually draws some loud rebuttals but I believe it to be true.
Could You Be A Small Timer? One of the great gifts is enjoying small dimension successes and relishing the payoff therein. As the world has grown to be more complex, lucky is the person who remains comfortable with achievements within a smaller range. Many people who enjoy limited successes seem to ride out difficulties more easily.
Seven Steps to Improving Your Stability
1. Establish your own modest cash hoard.
Conventional stocks, bonds, mutual funds are what most of us hold. You may need some or all of those dollars for short term survival and many investment markets are not all that safe or easily made liquid. If you might need your funds, think about a few investments just small steps away from pure cash.
2. Assume a worst case scenario and see how your family would likely be doing.
Some people have bullet proof careers or businesses. But for the rest of us a precarious economy is reality. So then, what will you do if your field, specialty, profession gets "management adjusted" in a hurry. How are you fixed for cash? Can you manage a full year with present expenses? Two years? Don't confuse investments which cannot be cashed out with true spendable dollars. How much cash can you actually count on?
3. Identify any physical or financial assets you can cash out.
How many goods you own can be readily resold? Have you ever tried marketing some of your possessions? Cars are terrible investments generally and may not sell quickly. Can you sell anything you own and is it worth selling at all? Unless you are a maven of trading artwork, collectibles and the like, you'll just be another amateur on Ebay hoping to hock some goodies. Just for your own satisfaction check your goods against comparables on Ebay.
4. Can you last a year or more with limited cash flow
Simply think about how that might work. Consider who you might call on to borrow from. Can you tap into your home equity? In most places setting up a home equity credit line does not cost the homeowner much of anything.
5. Is your line of work or profession in any danger of obsolescence, shipping offshore, replacement by cheaper foreign labor or extinction?
In 2002 and 2003 technology manager, engineers, lots of financial stafffound themselves pink slipped. For at least two years I talked to dozens of very competent people who could not find work. By 2005 many of these “excess” workers were again employed. I believe this will be the cycle of coming years. Economic drops, layoffs, rehiring all in shorter dramatic cycles. Most people in the American workforce have no guarantees of employment. Labor markets have become destabilized by companies thrashing around as multi-nationals. Now companies move jobs and careers around to fit complex analytical models. Your next boss may be in Vietnam.